Review Summary: It may not have been a success, but it doesn't mean it's bad.
After the success of their first album, Crossfade eventually grew out of people's interest. After this record became a commercial failure, Columbia Records dropped them, leaving them too shaken to even come up with a new album which led them to a five-year hiatus. Even so, “Falling Away” still does deliver something that band did right.
The first thing people may notice is that Ed Sloan’s voice has gotten amazingly better compared to their first album. You can actually understand what he’s singing and what he’s singing about. Another thing is that the band overall makes a different sound. The band moves from nu-metal to more of a softer rock sound. They tone down the whole loud and obnoxious riffs and move to more of a melodic taste that won’t make everybody block their ears and scream to turn down the volume. The loss of Tony Byroads (turntables, vocals) from their first album had Crossfade work a little harder in terms of how they were going to sound.
Not all of the songs are keepers, but there are songs that they really do get right. Some examples are the singles “Already Gone,” “Invincible,” and “Drown You Out.” “Already Gone” serves as the more acoustic song while electric guitars back up the chorus. “Invincible” is the more melodic track, and Ed Sloan’s voice shows the most potential on this piece, with an excellent chorus, and well preformed music. “Drown You Out” is probably the heaviest track on the album and is the first (and only so far) to have a guest artist featured (Sahaj Ticotin from “Ra”). This piece is faster paced, heavy, and is a well preformed song. Two other songs that the band did great on are “Someday,” and “Everything’s Wrong.” “Someday” is one of the better preformed tacks in terms of the music. It’s nicely flowing, slower, and just another really nice track, while “Everything’s Wrong” is another great song in which Ed Sloan’s vocals show great potential.
However, this is still a premature album. The lyrics themselves aren’t really that strong. An example of this is the clichéd title track, “Falling Away.” The bridge line, “Oh, I'm falling away. These are my dying days” doesn’t really relate to anything. It’s as if the band just threw it in there to keep the audience aware that the song hasn't ended yet. Another reason why this song pretty much blows is the pre-chorus “Woo I’m lovin’, but I’m feeling like *** and I’d never leave you for that.” Yeah, I don’t make sense of it either, because the pre-chorus is ***. “Breathing Slowly” is a real let down. It’s just a track that just repeats the same melody over and over again especially on the last forty seconds of the song, which is pretty much filler. “Never Coming Home” is a real nice ballad, but Sloan tries to sing like how a stereotypical African-American church chorus member would sing like. “Anchor” is probably the most forgettable track on the album because there are barely any lyrics and it’s a four minute song at that.
This album overall is somewhat of a step-up from Crossfade's first album. Improved vocals and a change in their style of music does add charm to the album, but it does lack in maturity with some poorly written lyrics and some clichéd terms. It’s not bad, but it’s not great and/or groundbreaking either. It could’ve been worse though, but luckily it didn’t turn out that way.
Recommended Tracks:
Already Gone
Someday
Invincible
Everything’s Wrong
Drown You Out
